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Sometimes I miss being able to walk into a newsagent's shop and buying some of the various comics titles that were around when I was growing up. Whether it's TV Century 21, Sparky, Smash!, Buster, Whizzer & Chips, Thunder, etc., it's just a shame they ceased publication many years back now. One comic I also purchased from time-to-time was TV Comic, though I didn't start buying it regularly until it became Mighty TV Comic in the late '70s. (And I still have my original issues from that time.)
However, the comic I bought was pretty unrecognisable (name aside) from when it first appeared in 1951. Those early issues had no Mighty Moth, no TV Terrors, no Texas Ted - Big Hat, Big Head, nor any of the strips based on the later popular TV shows that became most associated with it. So as a special treat to those who bought the periodical in the '60s and '70s and remember it fondly, I've published the complete first issue (8 pages) so that you can see how different the comic was to the one you knew.
Feel free to chip in with your thoughts, observations, and opinions on this 71 year old comic from yesteryear, as well as any of the later incarnations you knew in your youth. (Click on images to enlarge, then click again for optimum size.) The issue, from my own collection, is one I've owned for many years now, but as far as I remember, this is the first time I've shown it in its entirety.
TV Comic was before my time, unfortunately. The only TV comic I'm familiar with is Eddie Izzard.
ReplyDeleteTV comic was a comic I rarely bought as a child ( so that would be the mid 1960s to 1970) and I may only ever have bought one or 2 after that in the mid 70s ( I would gave been 14/15 then so too old for it). But from memory I wasn't a big fan. Saying that seeing some mid 60s TV Comics it looked pretty impressive and not how I recalled it. This one from 1951 is certainly of its time but very pretty looking comic with some lovely art.Amazing how words meaning can change so so quickly "let's be gay" ( merry/happy) 20 or so years later of course now associated with serxual identity. Still I had a school boy "titter" ( ooer) on reading that.1950s UK comic were pretty impressive at times.
ReplyDeleteOh, we're dying to know, DS - just how familiar are you with Eddie Izzard? (H'mm.)
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Yeah, funny how such an innocent word can have it's meaning altered so drastically by the passage of time, McS. I'm more familiar with the Polystyle Publications version of TV Comic (it had at least 3 publishers in its time). What amazes me is that it had only 8 pages - hardly what you'd call a bumper issue. And it looks more like a 'Sunday School' type comic to me. Still, it had a good long run, surviving into 1984 -33 years.
Never mind the 60's and 70's I read the comic in the 50's when full colour versions of TV b/w favourites were a treat.
ReplyDeleteMuffin on TV was more someone pounding a piano than adventure. I did have a large metal puppet made by Lesney, a Matchox toy it wasn't. It was too heavy for small children to operate.
Larry the Lamb was originally on the radio then a TV puppet show.
Richard Hearn was Mr Pastry, a boring slow plodding slapstick.
Prudence Kitten was just an annoying hand puppet, the BBC seemed to think puppets were the only entertainment children needed.
Hank was just brilliant in it's charm. There is a colour version available on Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSOW-4TCvS0&t=137s
Watch and enjoy the best of creative kids TV.
I've got an early TV Comic Annual (the 3rd perhaps), T47, and Hank is on the cover as well as inside. I saw a Hank puppet by Pelham (I think) being auctioned on Flog It! not that long ago, and also Muffin The Mule (probably not in the same episode though). Apparently, Muffin The Mule used to be a punishable offence, but we live in more forgiving and enlightened times (according to some) these days.
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